Terrified cyclist hangs on for dear life

TRISH LLOYD-JONES: 'Step classes are looking better and better.'

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One minute she was happily riding her bike, the next Trish Lloyd-Jones was knocked on to a moving trailer, holding on for dear life and screaming at pedestrians for help.

Mrs Lloyd-Jones was cycling through a roundabout at Ahuriri in Napier on Tuesday when a light commercial truck towing a trailer clipped her and she ended up on the trailer beside a small digger.

With one of her feet still clipped into a pedal, and her bike wrapped around the back of the trailer, she had no choice but to hang on.

"There was no warning. I started going left a bit then I ended up on the back of his trailer just trying to hang on," she said yesterday. "He just kept going. I was yelling out, 'Help, help'."

The truck driver was believed to have been trying to avoid several women with pushchairs when he hit Mrs Lloyd-Jones.

The 39-year-old nurse and mother of three was 15 kilometres into a 60km ride from her home in Clive when the accident happened about 11am. There were no vehicles behind the truck but several pedestrians heard and saw her on the trailer.

"I don't know what they thought. They might have thought I was meant to be there," she said.

Eventually she managed to free the bike, which fell to the road. After about 500 metres, the driver noticed her and pulled over.

"He came round the back of the truck. I got off the trailer. He was looking at me wondering what was going on. I told him, 'You clipped me back at the roundabout and I've been on the back of your trailer ever since.' He was quite shocked."

The truck driver took her back to her house. Mrs Lloyd-Jones, who is training for the half ironman competition in Taupo in November, said reaction set in when she got home. "I had a bit of a cry . . . it's just the wondering what could have happened."

Her only injury was a pulled calf muscle.

A motorist retrieved her bike, which is now being repaired, but she is not too keen to get back on it. "Step classes are looking better and better."

The truck driver has been issued with an infringement notice for making a dangerous passing manoeuvre and fined $150.